'JSW to invest ₹18,000 crore to expand cement business'

PARTH JINDAL, the 33-year-old scion of JSW Group, which has a revenue of $23 billion, aims to make significant strides in the cement industry, currently dominated by UltraTech and Ambuja Cements. JSW Group is open to acquiring more companies, provided the valuations are favourable and it does not overburden the group with additional debt. In an interview with Dev Chatterjee in Mumbai, the managing director of JSW Cement and JSW Paints reveals plans to invest ₹18,000 crore to treble cement capacity to 60 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), and that the paint company is targeting ₹10,000 crore in sales, despite increased competition from incumbent Asian Paints and soon-to-enter Aditya Birla Group. Edited excerpts:

- Dev Chatterjee

JSW missed the opportunity to acquire Ambuja Cements last year. What's the plan now to increase capacity? 

We are aggressively expanding our presence in the cement business. When I took over the business in 2016, we had a capacity of 6 mtpa, which has now grown to 19 mtpa. By the end of 2023, we will reach a capacity of 21 mtpa.

We have charted a road map to scale up our capacity threefold to 60 mtpa over the next five years.

During this period, we will be investing ₹18,000 crore.